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Friday, February 24, 2017

It's the weekend and the Show is on!
If you live close to Seattle, take this chance to say Hello to spring and to shake off the winter blues!
There will be lots of articles about the Show with deep analysis and some critical commentary, but I, honestly, just want to lure you into the Washington State Convention Center ( Feb. 22-26, 2017) with some pictures and my own quick thoughts.
Why do I like the Northwest Flower and Garden Show?
Why do I look forward to it every year since we moved to the Greater Seattle area?
1 - This Show is my late-winter coffee.
As coffee gives me a buzz allowing me to shed sleepiness and prepare for the day ahead, the NWFGS helps me to wave Goodbye to the winter blues and embrace the spring even before it comes to my own garden.
What is this if not spring?

'Blooming Abundance' by Flower Growers of Puget Sound

2 - This Show fits my eclectic taste with regard to garden styles.
I do tend to be rather a minimalist when it comes to my own garden, but oh, how I love to look at sumptuous, lush, vibrant gardens in the country and abroad!
That is why I equally enjoyed walking around the seemingly uncomplicated 'Mid-Mod-Mad... It's Cocktail Hour' as much as bright and striking gardens such as 'Afternoon Tear With Mrs. Pumphrey' and 'Herbal Remedy - The Cure For Cabin Fever'.

"...updated mid-century design... embraces simplistic plant choices, strong angles and geometry of hardscaping made popular in the 1950's and 60's - making a big comeback today"

4 - I do love Italian gardens. I have a page in this blog 'Garden of the World That I Visited' with pictures of several breathtaking Italian gardens.

The Show never fails to take me back to Italy and its gardens with their statuary and stoneware, flowing water, geometric structure, fruit trees and other typical features, such as this year's 'Villa Primavera':

Most of the outfits on a catwalk are sophisticated and often eccentric, and an ordinary person with a clear mind would never wear them.

But some particular elements, color combinations, accessories, etc. are absolutely appropriate in a normal person's wardrobe.

The same is with display gardens. Among elaborate, fancy and magnificent features, there is always something that I can use in my own garden: pairing flowering plants and grasses, mixing evergreens and perennials, using stepping stones, blending different types of plant and hardscape materials, trimming trees and bushes, even decorating garden tables!

Such wonderful and interesting exhibitions will certainly help to forget at least for some time that the windows is still winter, the season, and we still have to wait for the colors in nature. Regards.

Thanks so much for sharing your wonderful photos and your thoughts on some of the elements of the display gardens. Your keen eye picked out so many things that I missed. And it was fun to run into you there!

This tour of the show through your beautiful photographs was almost as good as being there, Tatyana. I love the teatime display, but I think the mountains one is my favorite. I can't wait for our own Philadelphia Flower Show in March. You are right, these shows banish the winter blues. P. x